Chapter Six

After a long moment of shock held them all immobile when Tala came out the victor, those of his pack who held Marrok back released him. He’d lost his shit when he thought his mate was about to be killed, and four of his strongest wolves still hadn’t been entirely enough. His wolf had been frantic inside his head, lending added power to his limbs while at the same time pushing to be released so he could rip out the bastard’s throat who threatened their mate.

Now he shoved the unconscious mass of the wolf Tala had defeated away from her to pull her into his arms. “Tala? Talk to me. Are you—”

She shoved him off her. Hard. “I’m fine,” she spat.

His wolf managed to growl and whimper at the same time. Something was wrong with their mate. Marrok held up his hands. He watched as she gingerly rose to her feet, giving her head a shake. Then he, too, moved to his feet.

Rather than address him, Tala turned a hard stare on Accalia, who now cowered on the ground. His magnificent mate stalked to the she-wolf and crouched down. In a voice all the more deadly for the softness, she addressed every person listening.

“There will be an investigation. If your alleged attacker is found guilty, he will be punished. If it is found you have lied, you will join Sandalio.”

Accalia paled so drastically, Marrok wondered if she’d pass out.

“Do you want to rethink your charges?” Tala asked.

Accalia started to shake. “He didn’t attack me,” she said through pale, pinched lips. “Sandalio helped me fake it.”

“Was anyone else involved?” Tala asked.

Accalia’s hair fell into her eyes as she shook her head, her gaze lowered. “Not that I know of.”

Tala rose to her feet and surveyed the gathering. “Any other challengers tonight?” She asked the question almost conversationally. Like she was asking if anyone wanted more to eat. Damn, she was magnificent.

“No?” Tala asked. A long silence greeted her question. “Good.”

She took a deep breath, and the next words came out in a raised voice. “I believe we’ve celebrated this full moon enough. Time to get to the business of learning to live together as one pack. In peace.”

She turned to him and held out her hand. “Shall we?”

Marrok grinned, unable to hold back his pride in his mate, and took her hand. His wolf still wanted to check that she was unharmed, but he suspected he’d lose a limb if he tried.

Together they walked out of the clearing, leaving the business of cleaning up to the others. They made the trek through the woods to their home in silence.

As soon as they entered their suite, Tala went to stand in front of the long mirror in the bathroom and pulled back the blue skirt of her dress to reveal a nasty scrape up her thigh, probably from when she’d slid under Sandalio. She also inspected the bite on her foot. He should’ve carried her out of the forest. She hadn’t even limped.

Marrok couldn’t cage his wolf’s growl at the sight.

Tala shoved her dress down to spin around and bare her teeth, her canines elongating as she growled back, louder and longer.

A much louder, much deeper growl reverberated from him in answer. “I’ve had about all I can take with you growling at me today,” he snapped. “I was concerned.”

She didn’t pull her teeth in, instead leaning casually against the counter, arms crossed, and lifted a single unimpressed brow. “Oh?”

What? He couldn’t even be concerned for his mate now? Not even in private?

He stepped closer, wolf pushing him to show her what he meant, though he didn’t bare his teeth in return. “In my pack, growling at the alpha is a challenge, and baring your teeth is asking for a fight.”

“What if that alpha is being a jackass?”

Marrok’s head snapped back as if she’d struck him. “I was worried for my mate. Is that wrong?”

That only earned him a glare. “Have any of your people pulled you aside to tell you you’re not being alpha enough? Or challenged you directly for mating me?”

His brows snapped down over his eyes. This again? “No.”

“Maybe that’s because you’re still acting like the only alpha in this equation.”

Now Marrok crossed his arms, imitating her closed-off body posture. “You’re my mate. You were in a fight. I was fucking worried, Tala.”

Terrified more like. Frantic. That’s what she did to him.

Tala snorted. “Which is exactly the problem. You shouldn’t have been worried. You, out of everyone there, should have been the least worried. I’m every inch the alpha you are, and I earned my place, rather than inherited it.”

Marrok stared at his mate, anger and frustration boiling over, triggering a response that was a damn sight more unnerving—pure, unadulterated need.

Fuck.

He couldn’t peel his gaze away. Her green eyes glowed with anger and power, and her teeth sharpened. Her wolf pushing at her should’ve had him on high alert, but her breasts strained against her vest, nipples erect and begging for his attention. Meanwhile her heart rate was slow and steady, in complete control. And the alpha waves she was giving off, clotting the air, were about the sexiest damn things he’d ever come across. That familiar heavy pulsing shot blood straight to his groin. He’d never been this hard, even in his youth.

Dammit.

Before he could say a word, Tala whipped off the thin gold chain around her waist and snapped it at him. One end of the device coiled around his neck—not too tight, a warning. A demonstration. He winced at the bite of the sting, and he had to tense against the instinctive need to defend himself. Instead, he held still.

So her belt was a whip of some sort? She was always pulling random weapons out of thin air like that. Where the hell did she keep them all?

Despite it being wrong on every level, he wanted her. Tala was fucking incredible, and he needed to claim her. Now. The musky scent of her arousal told him she was equally turned on.

His mate wanted to be in charge? Okay by him. “Prove it.”

Her shoulders stiffened and her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Show me just how alpha you can be.”

He could see the battle in her eyes. She was angry with him. Angrier with herself for wanting him right now. The second she made her decision, he knew, because her heart rate took off.

She led him by the chain around his neck to the bed, and he went meekly enough. His wolf watched warily, not liking that they were essentially trapped, but also caught up in the desire to claim. At the bed, she spun them both around. With a none-too-gentle shove to the middle of his chest, she toppled him onto the bed. Before he knew it, she was straddling his hips. The chain was off his neck, but before he could touch her, she bound his wrists to the headboard. The coils of the whip wound tighter when he tugged against them.

His wolf growled low inside his head, but no urge to shift and protect himself came over him. At the same time, his cock swelled.

Tala made quick work of his belt and zipper and peeled his pants down his body, tossing them on the floor. Before he had any clue what she was up to, with no teasing or warning, she wrapped her mouth around him and sucked hard.

Marrok practically came off the bed. A groan ripped out of his throat as she took him deep, surrounding his shaft with heat and pressure and…fuck she looked so beautiful. She pulled back, releasing him with a pop, but then ran her tongue up and down his shaft, circling the head each time. Then back into her mouth. He moved his hips, and she let him pump in and out of her. Faster and faster. Before he could explode inside her, however, she released him, a wicked grin on those now swollen lips.

“Tala.” His wolf howled inside his head.

She ignored his plea as she slowly slipped her dress over her head, then discarded her bra. The sight of her pink-tipped breasts about sent him over the edge. Then she shoved off him to stand beside the bed and shimmied out of her panties. Every inch of her delectable body was uncovered, and every nerve in his body throbbed and strained for her. The coils around his arms tightened, holding him fast.

She straddled his legs again, but not where he wanted her. He bucked, trying to make her move higher.

Tala grinned. “Do you want to touch me?”

“You know I do.”

Her eyes widened at the wolf-roughed timbre of his voice, obviously aware of the edge he rode. The change rippled under his skin, but he held it back.

“Where?” she asked.

He swallowed, and his eyes dropped of their own accord.

“Here?” she purred. She raised her own hands to knead her breasts. She tossed her head back as she plucked at her nipples with her fingers.

“Tala.” Her name ripped out of his throat.

She lifted her head. “More?”

He doubted he could take much more.

“Maybe here?” While keeping one hand on her breast, she trailed the other down her flat belly to the apex of her thighs.

A small whimper escaped her as she touched herself.

Ours, his wolf snapped in his head.

“Stop,” Marrok demanded. As much as it turned him on to watch her, giving her pleasure was his right as her mate. He should be the one touching her.

Those gorgeous green eyes twinkled at him. “Or what?”

Did she just challenge him? He’d show her who was in charge now. With all the strength his form afforded, he strained against the bindings until the chain dug painfully into his skin. What had she tied him up with?

He was so focused on breaking free so he could show his mate who was boss, he didn’t notice her moving until she sank onto his shaft in one long stroke. His body jerked under her and he stopped struggling, his entire attention on what she was doing.

Tala continued to touch her own body as she rode him—her strokes long, deep, and torturously slow. In that instant, he and his wolf forgot the need to dominate, too wrapped up in the sensuous moves of her body, the erotic image of her hands as they played across her skin, and the sensation of every motion as she fucked him.

Gradually she increased the pace. Her lips fell apart as she panted her need, her own release as close as his. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and pinned him with a look that was pure alpha.

“Now,” she commanded.

Damned if his body didn’t obey, his orgasm slamming through him in waves. At the same time, she screamed as her body clamped around, milking his cock. Tala continued to ride him as the waves crested through them both over and over, easing until they collapsed together, their ragged breathing the only sound in the room.

With languorous movements, she reached up, and with barely a touch, the coils unwound from his arms. He needed to ask her where she got that thing. She lay her head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her, both he and his wolf oddly content, despite the fact that another alpha had dominated them both.

The conversation was far from over. He knew that. But, for now, he and his mate rested quietly, bodies still intimately connected.

An unfamiliar warmth built inside him—happiness and satisfaction mixed with something else, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. A deeper emotion he was strangely reluctant to identify. Certainly a sensation he’d never fully experienced. His wolf gave a pleased hum as Tala curled into him more.

His mate certainly kept him on his toes—alpha in charge one second, vulnerable woman in his arms the next.

He pulled her closer and shut his eyes. They’d figure out the rest later.